Syrians in Jordan fear hunt from Assad agents

Source: AP-Excite

By JAMAL HALABY

IRBID, Jordan (AP) - Sultan, a 42-year-old Syrian anti-regime activist, knew he was being hunted, even in this northern Jordanian city where he had taken refuge. The attack came on a crowded street: Two men grabbed him and dragged him into a waiting car, shouting, "It's him!"

In the chaos, Sultan says, he recognized the car's driver: a Syrian intelligence officer from the Damascus prison where for three months this year Sultan was jailed and tortured for participating in protests against President Bashar Assad.

"We can finish him in seconds," one of the men shouted, Sultan told The Associated Press, speaking on condition that his full name not be used to avoid further reprisals.

In the car, they stabbed him with a knife, slashing his neck and head. But the car got stuck in traffic. When Sultan screamed and pounded on the windows, passers-by and police intervened and rescued him, arresting the four Syrian men in the car.

1. It's interesting, because the Syrian government did free this man.

Indeed, they have freed a lot of detainees, provided the detainees had committed no violent acts. If the Syrian government was so barbaric as many have made out, there would be story about this man at all, because he'd be dead or at least still locked up.